Career Opportunities in Teaching, Education and Training

The world is your oyster !

Skilled teachers, trainers and facilitators of learning are sought worldwide. While most teaching graduates work for the WA Department of Education or non-government schools within the state, school teachers are very much in demand nationally. Depending on your qualification, your skills as a teacher can take you across Australia and around the world.

A recent survey of all of our teacher education graduates for the past decade showed that almost all were employed in teaching within a year of graduating and that a very high proportion were still teaching and were doing so through choice. Teaching provides a rewarding and varied career.

Murdoch graduates are employed in both government and non-government schools.

Primary and Pre-primary teaching

Opportunities for primary teachers are expected to strengthen throughout Australia during the next decades.

In Western Australia, there will be a particular need for people who are able to teach in both the primary and pre-primary years. This is because there will be changing patterns in the numbers of children enrolled at different grade levels due to the phasing in of changes in the school entry age and the recent inclusion of four year olds in pre-schooling.

Secondary teaching

Opportunities for secondary teachers are expected to be good during the next decade. Indeed, in most Australian states, including WA, considerable shortages are predicted. Certain specialisations are expected to be in particularly short supply, for example, mathematics and physical science.

Teaching in rural communities

Teachers who are able to teach in rural areas are very much in demand and the Department of Education Western Australia (DOEWA) provides extra rewards. For example, in 2002 it offered a number of scholarships to students who were contemplating enrolling in a Grad Dip Ed (Secondary) in 2002 in one of the areas of shortage. The scholarships covered HECS liability and some of the costs of rural school experience. Students awarded these scholarships were required to teach for one year in a school nominated by the Department, including rural and remote schools.

Teaching in remote communities

In addition to the normal salary there is a range of allowances, benefits and bonuses in the Remote Teachers' Package. These include, free housing, guaranteed tenure of 3 or 4 years, and additional leave.

We recommend that you contact Department of Education and Training (DET) as the biggest employer of teachers in Western Australia to ask about current areas of shortage.

Education and Training

Education at Murdoch provides you with the skills, knowledge and confidence to shape a career which is rewarding and varied. Murdoch graduates have successful careers:

• working as mentors, trainers and facilitators of learning in diverse workplace settings
• consulting for a range of professional organisations
• teaching in adult and tertiary institutions throughout Australia
• working in administrative and management positions within educational settings
• training medical staff in local hospitals or remote centres within Australia
• researching in both public and private sector institutions
• working as evaluators of social and educational programs